Text of letter addressed to the Prime Minister by Mr. Jayaprakash Narayan while in detention on July 21, 1975.

Summary

In this seven-page letter written from detention on July 21, 1975, Jayaprakash Narayan directly challenges Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s justification for the Emergency. He rejects the claim that the Bihar movement and the Opposition had devised a plan to paralyse the government or spread disaffection among the armed forces. Instead, he presents the movement as a response to corruption, administrative failure, and the Bihar government’s refusal to negotiate with students and citizens. He argues that civil disobedience and satyagraha were limited, nonviolent efforts to secure political accountability, including the resignation of an elected government that had lost public confidence.

Key points

• Narayan urges Gandhi to revoke the Emergency, restore fundamental rights, restore press freedom, and release political detainees.
• He disputes the alleged plan to paralyse the government and denies that the Bihar movement sought to subvert constitutional government.
• He attributes the Bihar movement chiefly to corruption and the failure of state institutions to respond to public grievances.
• He defends civil disobedience and satyagraha as democratic, nonviolent forms of political action.
• He condemns press censorship as a response to editorials calling for Gandhi’s resignation rather than as a response to irresponsible journalism.
• He rejects the opposition between democracy and the nation, arguing that India’s Constitution defines the nation through democratic liberty, equality, justice, and fraternity.
• He warns that authoritarian repression will deepen public hardship and urges Gandhi to address corruption and electoral malpractice instead of destroying democracy.